This morning I almost got fined $200 for packing undisclosed broccoli!
Yes, Frank and I are in transit again. Out of Boston at 8 a.m. Saturday to San Francisco (6 hour flight, 7 hour layover) to Auckland, New Zealand (13 hour flight, 4 hour layover), and soon onward to Massey University in Palmerston North.
I’m sitting typing this blogpost in Auckland Airport, where, as we picked up our baggage to go through customs, a cute little bio-contam-sniffing beagle got very excited about my carry-on bag!
I couldn’t imagine what she was sniffing–the past aroma of Frank’s lunch sandwich of lox? The beagle kept begging to look inside my mini-suitcase, and her very nice female handler had to check.
And guess what? I had packed our toothbrushes in a used plastic grocery bag that had still inside it two fragments of broccoli!!!
The beagle got several treats for finding my broccoli, and they very kindly let me off with laughter and warnings.
Travelers everywhere, do you know where your broccoli is?
A bit more “wisdom” if you should ever follow in our crazy footsteps:
1) Both BOS and SFO airports have TMobile wifi. I bought a 24-hour Tmobile pass in Logan and was able to keep using the same pass in SFO. Better yet, I was able to put my computer to sleep and then let Frank use the account to go online with his computer.
2) Among the things New Zealand wants to know about if you have them–hiking boots or other camping equipment. They worry about your bringing in dirt on the treads.
3) A 13-hour flight is much more comfortable than a 7-hour flight in some ways–you have real time to sleep, for one thing. And I love Air New Zealand!
3 responses so far ↓
1 TA // Jan 14, 2008 at 7:41 am
Any chance of some nice landscape photos from the land of LOTR?
2 Betsy Devine // Jan 14, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Hi TA–You would love Air New Zealand which had all three LOTR movies as options for the SFO to AKL trip. I’m proud that I spent some time sleeping despite this temptation.
North is the wrong island for Gondor etc., but it does have Hobbiton! Lovely view from the air as our prop plane circled in over Palmerston North of patchwork small farms with a few dozen of sheep or cows on a few dozen rather scattered pastures.
Have to admit I was thinking, “Wow, it’s the Shire!”
But, sadly, I didn’t take photos from the plane window.
3 9emini // Jan 14, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Just heard Frank on the radio and found your blog via ‘his’ Wikipedia page. Having spent a couple of years in Palmy (finishing a physics degree at Massey of all things) I feel it is my duty to encourage you to check out the rest of the country! Enjoy your time here…